A very important anniversary came and went last month – four long years of blogging – and I didn’t even notice. But it did get me thinking – why am I doing it?
When I started blogging, I thought of it as a diary of my comings and goings, a way of tracking my progress – something to look back on when I’m locked up in the Retirement Home for Distressed Artists…
Then it dawned on me that it could be really quite useful as a marketing tool – after all collectors are supposed to be buying the artist these days, not just the art – and what better way of doing this than through an online diary?
So off I went, discussing/rambling on about my latest work and publicising exhibitions. You never know, I thought, it may even encourage people to come and see me and my work at an actual gallery (assuming I haven’t already bored them to death).
I also reasoned that people might like to hear about the ups and downs of an working artist’s life – sharing in your own hard won experience, and what you’ve learnt as a consequence, must be helpful. After all, what I don’t know about rejection by galleries, failure to sell and disasterous work can be written on the back of a postage stamp.
Inevitably, once I started to attract regular readers, I felt the need to write a bit more professionally – it’s not just my mum reading it now – and then I got to thinking ‘well, what is the point of putting in all this effort if hardly anyone’s reading it?’
So I started to look into how to attract more readers and what do I find? The number one rule is that you have to post on a regular basis as the search engines like sites that update regularly – having a blog and posting only every now and again is pointless as it won’t generate any traffic. Again, why bother if no-one is reading it?
And before you know it, writing a blog can become a bit of an obligation – and it’s hard work, especially for a control freak like me who needs every word to be perfectly placed and every idea perfectly expressed. I still enjoy it if I have the time but when it starts to become another chore, I do wonder if my time would be better spent doing other things. And I have many artist friends who are perfectly successful with no blog and no help at all from Twitter or Facebook.
So back to the beginning – why am I doing it? And the answer is, I have no idea…..
I had noticed your prints at a couple of galleries before seeing the blog. I knew I wanted to buy something but was interested to find out more about your work first. The blog was great for that. I enjoyed reading about your experiences as an artist and a little of how you work. I find printmaking fascinating. Also because I subscribed to your blog I found out about the free tickets for the Battersea Art Fair and came along to buy a print. I guess I'm saying I would have eventually bought a print but the blog helped speed that up. Hoping to buy another in the future – finances permitting đŸ™‚
Thank you so much for taking the time to say that – I guess I'm not whistling in the dark then!
And pleased to hear you came along to the Affordable Art Fair – I always have free tickets so just ask anytime you want to come again….